Some vehicles such as automobiles have two adjacent window panels lying in the same plane. A boundary line between the two window panels is often called “parting line”. This parting line extends through a gap between the two window panels. A wiper blade of a wiper apparatus moves from one of the two window panels across the parting line to the other window panel for wiping the same. Washer liquid injected from a washer liquid nozzle unit to the one of the window panel partially falls into the gap between the window panels when the wiper blade passes across the parting line. To address this problem, there is a need for a technique for efficiently supplying the washer liquid, which has been injected to the one window panel, to the other window panel.
It is thought that a washer liquid nozzle unit has two nozzles for injecting respective washer liquids to two window panels. Such a technique is known from JP-U-6-63661.
The technique disclosed in JP-A-U-6-63661 is applied to a front window of a driver's compartment of a construction machine such as a power shovel and a crane. The front window is formed by a vertically elongated window frame of a generally rectangular shape, and upper and lower glass panels mounted in the frame. The lower glass panel (first window panel) and the upper window panel (second window panel) are vertically adjacently disposed in the same plane. A parting line extends between the upper glass panel and the lower glass panel.
A wiper apparatus has a pivot shaft located on a lower corner of the upper glass panel. A wiper blade is vertically pivotable on the pivot shaft to wipe both of the upper and lower glass panels. A washer liquid nozzle unit is disposed on the window frame in the vicinity of an upper corner of the upper glass panel. The washer liquid nozzle unit, which is diagonally opposed to the pivot shaft, has two nozzles. One of the two nozzles injects a washer liquid to the upper glass panel while the other nozzle injects a washer liquid to the lower glass panel.
The washer liquid is injected from the other nozzle across the parting line onto a region or point of a surface of the lower glass panel. Due to a relatively long distance between the other nozzle and the region, an angle at which the washer liquid is injected relative to the surface of the lower glass panel is smaller. To reliably supply the washer liquid to the surface of the lower glass panel in spite of the smaller injection angle, the technique disclosed in JP-U-6-63661 needs to be further improved. Thus, this technique should not be applied to vehicles as it is.